HAMPTON, Ga. – Ryan Newman, who won the pole for today’s Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, will have to start the No.12 Dodge at the rear of the field after his team changed engines Saturday morning.

“We made nine laps this morning,” Newman said of the first Nextel Cup practice. “It started tightening up coming off Turn 4 and we had a pretty good amount of oil on one of the spark plugs. Something was wrong.”

Newman ran 193.124 mph on Friday night to earn his seventh pole at Atlanta. But when he drops to the back before Sunday’s green flag, Jimmie Johnson will move up from the third spot to the inside of Row1.

“This is the best track if you have to go to the rear,” Newman said. “Obviously we don’t want to do it, but we’ve got a great car. I am not going to complain at all about luck or a break. This stuff happens once in a while.

“It’s no fun.”

Baker happy with pupil

Buddy Baker said he knew the first day he tested with Newman at Atlanta, Newman would one day challenge qualifying records – including Baker’s.

When Newman won his seventh pole at the track Friday he tied Baker’s Atlanta record.

“I couldn’t think of a better person to share that record with than Buddy Baker,” Newman said. “He’s helped me with my racing career. He’s a great friend.”

Baker was hired by Penske Racing to mentor Newman. He remembers the first Atlanta test with Newman in January 2001.

“The nice part of working with Ryan, when he loves a place he’d just look at it and grin,” Baker said. “When we got here, it was obvious it was his kind of race track. It’s just a matter of time before he breaks the pole record outright; he’s liable to do it in October and I would smile.”

Newman has more work to do. “The last time I sat on the pole here I won the race,” Baker said of Atlanta. “So I told him he’s got a little more to do yet.” Newman’s best finish at the speedway is a fifth in spring 2004.

Briefly

Chase Austin, 17, has joined the driver development program at Rusty Wallace Inc. Austin will drive a No.66 Dodge in the 14-race NASCAR Busch East Series. Austin has won more than 100 features in go-karts, stock cars and sprint cars. Steve Darne will serve as crew chief. D.P.

Tony Stewart’s relentless criticism of the “car of tomorrow,” which will debut next weekend at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, continues. Last week, he called the car “prehistoric.” When asked if he expects there to be more crashes next weekend, Stewart said, “I wish we could crash all of them to where we don’t have to run drive them anymore.” D.P.

Matt Kenseth will start 21st at Atlanta, which is pretty typical of his qualifying efforts at the place. His average starting spot in 14 previous Atlanta races was 23.8. There’s a reason for that, Kenseth said. “I just stink at it,” he said. “For a track I like as much as I like this one, it’s probably one of my worst qualifying tracks.” Kenseth said he finds it hard to see the white line at the bottom of the track during nighttime qualifying because the rest of the track is white, too.